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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I myself will take a
shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender
sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the
mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear
fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they
will find shelter in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the forest
will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow
tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.’”
“I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.”
Ezekiel 17:22-24
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Take anything that mankind has ever accomplished and
remember that it’s nowhere close to what God has done. It sounds like an
overstatement of the obvious until you think about how many people think that
they are gods unto themselves when they boast about all the things they might
have done.
If you need an example, you only need to go back to the days
of the Bible and consider all the many empires who rose to power only to fail
and fall into obscurity. When you do this, you’ll end up with a long list which
will include a couple of dynasties found in yesterday’s devotion (Babylon and
Egypt) but as we see in the final verses of Ezekiel 17, the Lord promises to
establish a power that will be unlike any other, a power whose authority will
be over every nation, not just at the beginning but forever. Look again at
these verses:
“This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: ‘I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar
and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant
it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant
it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds
of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its
branches. All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the
tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the
dry tree flourish.’”
“I the Lord have
spoken, and I will do it.” Ezekiel 17:22-24
Yesterday, you’ll recall the parable that God gave His
prophet Ezekiel to share with His people. It involved two powerful eagles, one
more so than the other, who became involved with the Israelites through their
leaders.
The first eagle, representing the Babylonians, went to the
top of a mighty cedar tree in Lebanon and “broke off its topmost shoot” before
carrying it away to Babylon, the “land of merchants”, and planting it in a “city
of traders” near an “abundant water” source. Scripture tells us the vine “produced
branches and put out leafy boughs”. This vine signified Judah’s King Jehoiachin
and the Israelites who were taken to Babylon with him after the Babylonian’s
first assault on Jerusalem. You’ll recall that Jehoiachin was replaced by a
vassal king named Zedekiah who was required to follow Nebuchadnezzar’s every
direction.
But as we know, Zedekiah did not do this but instead, broke
his treaty with the Babylonian king as well as violated God’s commandment to
never return to Egypt for horses or anything else for that matter. You see,
Zedekiah thought that if he could convince the Egyptians to come to his aid,
then the Babylonians could be overthrown. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out
like Zedekiah thought it would and ended up in the throes of God’s judgment in
a big way. The Egyptians were scared off. Jerusalem was destroyed. Zedekiah’s
sons were killed before his very eyes before those eyes were gouged out, the
first step in the vassal king’s eventual execution by Nebuchadnezzar. As we saw
yesterday, the vine representing Zedekiah didn’t survive but rather was
uprooted and stripped so it would wither and die off.
Of course, Zedekiah and the Israelites were not the only
nation to fall from power at the hands of God’s judgment. The Egyptians didn’t
last. Neither did the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans who
would follow. None of these dominant empires sustained their supremacy and no
power since them has been established and then remained.
The fact of the matter of the matter is that only one
authority remains that God has created and that authority bears the name of
Jesus, God’s only Son who was put in place to rule over all creation by His
Father.
Why is this worth mentioning?
Because it’s Jesus who is at the center of the final verses
of chapter 17. Let’s break down the particulars.
First, God Himself, not an eagle, is the one who takes the
shoot from the top of the cedar tree and plants it, not in some city where it
might be obscured but rather on a high and lofty mountain in Israel where
everyone would be able to watch the tree grow into grandeur, grow into a
mighty, splendid cedar tree. All the other trees would know that the tree God
planted was different, a tree that they would never rival, a tree that would
remain in eminence forever.
Second, note what the mighty, splendid cedar would provide
to others:
1. It would develop branches that would bear much fruit.
2. Birds of every kind would come and nest in it.
3. Shelter would be found in the shade of its branches.
In other words, the mighty cedar would be a thing of great
value and worth to all as long as they came to it.
We’ve already established the shoot who grows to become the
mighty, splendid cedar tree is Jesus. We can validate this by looking at words
from a different prophet of God, Isaiah:
A shoot will come up
from the stump of Jesse; from His roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of
the Lord will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit
of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and He
will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His
eyes, or decide by what He hears with His ears; but with righteousness He will
judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips
He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the
sash around His waist.
The wolf will live
with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion
and the yearling together; and a little
child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie
down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play
near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s
nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth
will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
In that day, the Root
of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him,
and His resting place will be glorious. In that day, the Lord will reach out His
hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of His people from Assyria,
from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from
Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.
He will raise a
banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the
scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. Ephraim’s
jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed; Ephraim will not
be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim. They will swoop down on
the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to
the east. They will subdue Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to
them. The Lord will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind
He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven
streams so that anyone can cross over in sandals. There will be a highway for
the remnant of His people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when
they came up from Egypt. Isaiah 11
Whether you consider the closing verses of Ezekiel 17 or the
11th chapter of Isaiah, the message is the same. God was soon to send hope to
His people, a hope that would come in the form of His Son Jesus and the world
would never be the same ever again. The exiled Israelites would one day return
back to their homeland and God would give them a King (capital K) who would
have no rival. All other rulers and principalities would be subject to Him. His
kingdom would be composed of all creation and so there would be many branches comprised
of many people who would do great work in His name and thus bear abundant
fruit. He would become a shelter for anyone who would come to Him, a refuge and
strength in good times and bad.
Today, Jesus, the mighty and splendid cedar planted by God,
is still flourishing and so is anyone who seeks protection and direction in
Him. Through His word and way, through modeling the life He lived, His disciples,
the branches extending from Him are yielding a bounty of fruits, fruits of the
Spirit which serve to help and bless others, ultimately leading them to come to
their Savior and bear fruit themselves.
Have you come to Him yet yourself?
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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